From its design origins to behind-the-scenes production secrets, here are 10 fascinating facts every Star Trek fan should know.
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A floating mushroom or a galactic table lamp are two things that Spacetalk 1 might well resemble
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But since its debut in the search for Spock some 40 years ago, the Earth orbital docking structure
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has lived on in both live action and animated Star Trek. It has proved to be a versatile structure
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with its design used across the Federation in various incarnations and reused footage
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The original station itself has become almost as iconic a part of the franchise as its gorgeous
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array of starships and is one of the most recognizable structures to exist in Star Trek
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So recognizable, in fact, that it would be brought back recently for Picard's final season. Shuffling
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across the stars with a little help for some warped tugs, it serves now as the Fleet Museum
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at Athan Prime, housing legendary starships from all eras, including a classic Constitution class
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This standard home base for much of the Star Trek cinematic adventures, this list will not only
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focus on its exterior, but also the interior, as well as its legacy across the generations
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both live action and animated. Engage the autopilot, sit back and let the dockmaster
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take control as we explore what's aboard, and not just in Hangar 12. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek
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Culture, and here are 10 secrets about Space Dock 1 you need to know. Number 10, a matter of
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perspective. The live-action appearances of Space Dock are, for the most part, re-usage of footage
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from Star Trek III. The approach of the Enterprise and the entrance through the gigantic space doors
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instantly became iconic. It's suggested that the doors and the enclosed bay are designed in such a
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way as to allow work crews to operate in the vacuum, yet still be protected from prolonged
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radiation exposure without the need of enclosed spacecraft such as the travel pods or tugs
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In Star Trek VI, the audience is shown the first appearance of the executive shuttle and future
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kitbash into the USS Ginolan. It is also the only time in the franchise that Space Dock is
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viewed from a ventral angle. This was a conscious decision from the effects team to find a different
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way to look at the base, providing a better look at the underside of the station's surfaces
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as well as that smaller hub where the Enterprise D would be resurrected in the 25th century
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One thing that you won't find on Spacedock but was part of the original concept
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was a designation similar to those you would find on a Starship
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In the case of Spacedock 1, in the original artwork for the search for Spock
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it was labelled as NC7011S, though this never made it a screen
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Number nine, digital distinctions. The design for the space dock station was seen outside of
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live action Star Trek with its most significant appearance in the third season of Lower Decks
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Douglas Station was the launch site for the Texas class automated craft sponsored by Vice Admiral
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Les Buen Amigo. This offered a rare chance to see the space dock type utilize its defense systems
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as it combated the rogue ships, although these phaser turrets proved fairly ineffectual against
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the drone's Starfleet prototypes. Douglas Station was also used as the launch site for the USS
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Cerritos in Mariner's Crisis Point rewritten holodeck adventure. The introductory scene of
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the Cerritos in that movie, Pastiche has all the trademarks of the motion picture combined with the
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aesthetic of the blue-hued space dock interior as per Star Trek III. Douglas Station was also the
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final destination for the generation ship in Moist Vessel, as well as the site for repairs
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following the incident with the Pakled clump ships in No Small Parts. In fact, Lower Decks
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has also allowed fans inside the living space in the structure and the offices of its top brass
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something never done in the movies. Size suggests that this version is more in line with the original Space Dock 1 design
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than the upscaled edition used for its various next generation episode appearances Number 8 Ship Shapes in Shot Over the course of its live appearances we have seen seven starships inside the space dock structures There were three types
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of Enterprise with the refit, A and D. The Excelsior was shown in Star Trek 3, along with an unnamed
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Miranda-class ship in the Voyage Home, and that reuse of the Planet of the Titans concept hidden
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in the background. According to graphics later sold at auction, which were used in the space
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scenes, this Miranda-class might be the USS Intrepid. Eagle-eyed viewers can spot an Oberth-class
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ship present as the crew is transported to the Enterprise-A for the first time at the end of the
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voyage home. The registry on the craft is NCC-640, the USS Copernicus. The Oberth-class model would
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next appear as the SS Tielkovsky in the next generation's The Naked Now. As the model was
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shown from a distance in said episode with no close-ups, at least in 1987, nothing was changed
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It's fair to say that no one expected a remaster to follow in the years to come. As for smaller craft, two types are utilised inside space dock. One is the travel pod first
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used in the motion picture to transport Kirk and Scotty to the refitted USS Enterprise
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and the second is termed as an orbital shuttle and in some cases a Starfleet tug. It would be
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seen in the third, fourth, and fifth movies with reused footage featuring it in the first season
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of The Next Generation. Number seven, a different class. Sovereign, Nebula, Constitution, all evoke
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images of starship classes and the same goes for space stations. Memory Beta simply refers to this
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one as a space dock type, while several fan sites suggest it belongs to the Ornal class. This is
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never mentioned on screen and in official materials aside from the Eagle Moss Starships
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collection. There is no mention of this designation for this type of space structure. Even the
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graphics used to detail the ships of the museum fleet state it as a space dock type. Furthermore
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attempting to get a definition for the word ordinal also seems to be difficult, with everything
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defaulting to journal. Maybe the J just fell off? The first reference to it as this class seems to
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appear back in Eric Jackal Christensen's Starfleet reference manual, Ships of the Fleet
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Volume 2, from 1993. Fan association Starfleet International uses this as a class designation
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for its chapters choosing the design as their fictional base, such as the UK's Space Dock
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Birmingham. In-universe, these locations are only ever referred to as space docks. Some beta canon
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sources list an Ornall 2 class station large enough for the Enterprise-D to dock through the
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main doors, which could include Starbase 47 and accounts for the identical design
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Number 6. Afterlife. The search for Spock is the only time that the extensive central dock and the
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20-foot wall section would be used as both were destroyed after filming wrap. This meant that for
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the unveiling of the Enterprise-A in the Voyage Home, as well as shots in the Undiscovered Country
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a new and less intricate interior was built. That recreated interior would also be used for
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the sequence in which Space Dock is shown losing power when approached by the whale probe in the
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voyage home. The control room area was still in existence for that later sequence, composited with
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new shots of the interior. Star Trek V would rely purely on reusing existing footage for the
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sequences in Space Dock. The scale miniature of the exterior would return for Star Trek III
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4 and 6 as well as The Next Generation. The sequences filmed for 11001001 would be the
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only ones created for that series that would then be reused for all future encounters
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That first season episode of The Next Generation would also include a new docking port that would
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be reused for one other episode. This was a side shot matte painting was created by Enterprise D
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designer Andrew Probert and then augmented with tiny people walking across the gangway for scale
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Its second appearance would come in season 4's Remember Me, this time as the docking port at Starbase 133, though this was all archive footage
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Number 5. Big and Blue As the USS Enterprise stops inside the vast hall of Space Dock 1 it passes by a series of large windows and a lounge All rise and watch as the patched up and scarred starship arrives at the base
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Keep an eye out for Grace Lee Whitney among the crowd. This lounge would then house that janitor, complete with mop and bucket
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who gets to witness that same enterprise reversing toward the very closed space doors
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At the time, the only way to create that effect was to use the world's largest blue screen
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which was housed at ILM's Marin County headquarters. In one of those ironic franchise
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twists, it was also the same blue screen that was used for the speeder bike and Jabba's sail barge
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sequences in some other sci-fi sequel called Return of the Jedi, I think. Some 40 extras were drafted
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in for the arrival of the Enterprise, while additional height and scale was added to the set
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for the inclusion of a matte painting to the top and sides. The interior wall model of Space Dock
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and the USS Enterprise were then composited into that shot. The cafeteria was contained within the
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central structure and fans can also spot part of the Excelsior docked just to the left of the screen
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In a near homage to the docking shots in the search for Spock, a smaller control room was
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featured in 11001001 with the Enterprise D docking through the windows in the background
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This would also mirror the Enterprise D's theft by the binars where the ship is seen reversing out
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past the same windows again. Number four, a second lease of life. Aethan Prime, the early 25th century
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and what better place to line up a series of classic starships than at a classic starbase
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The familiar shape of Space Dock 1 loomed up on the viewscreen during the third and final season
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of Picard. Its outer shell had now been supplemented with a series of rings in which
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famed vessels from yesteryear were housed for display. In Vox, it's suggested that not only
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is the Enterprise D stored here in the secretive Hangar 12, but that the Enterprise E may be at
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least nearby as well. Viewers know that it wasn't an option for combating the Borg, but the throwaway
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line that it wasn't an option teases a possibility that there's one other Enterprise parked at the
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museum waiting for Geordi's engineering expertise. Hangar 12 is in the lower structure of space dock
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rather than the large mushroom section, thus neatly solving the issue of scale presented by
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Starbase 74. Production designer for Picard Dave Blass revealed that James Chung was responsible
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for the basic design work on the CG version of Spacedock, which combined with several existing
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models for reference materials, the team created a light wave model, then refined it down to what
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was seen on screen. Blass also said that Spacedock was towed to its new location by Warped Tugs
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possibly by the Wallenberg class seen around Mars during Picard's first season and part of the
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Romulan evacuation fleet. The decision to use the structure from the movies came down to Terry
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Metallus's love of the design and the fact that it was such an iconic piece of classic Star Trek
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fitting with the collection it housed. Number three, state of the interior. For two of Star
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Trek III's most memorable sequences, the script required interior shots of space dock featuring
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the Enterprise and the Excelsior. The models weren't made so that the interior and the two
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ships were all on scale. In fact, all the shots of the 8-foot Enterprise and brand new 10-foot
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Excelsior involved compositing images together to get the scale right. They did build a section of
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the interior measuring some 20 feet across, with the exterior model measuring in at 6 feet from
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top to bottom. The central docking structure was one element while the curved wall of the vast bay
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was the second. The magazine for the Eagle Moss special goes into detail about this
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noting that the exterior wall was covered in photocopies of the patterning to save time and
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money. It would only ever be seen from a distance and no one in 1983 had ever considered the
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the possibility of 4K. The beams of light firing up into the docking chamber were created
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by Fresnel lamps placed outside. The production team also needed fans to stop the photocopied
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interior detail from getting too warm and peeling due to those very same lamps To create an even more unique look a faint smoke haze was used with multiple takes overlaid to create the desired atmosphere and enhance the lighting beams
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The model was also reversible so that if you walked outside it represented the exterior of
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space dock complete with motorized doors. The big win here was that more detailed shots could
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be filmed that could not be achieved on the smaller 6 foot miniature
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2. Other uses. Besides turning up in 4 motion pictures, the space dock model was also used
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during the years of the next generation. It appeared as Starbase 74 in 11001001
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Starbase 133 in Remember Me, and Lya Station Alpha in Ensign Row
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Its final appearance in the next generation would come in Season 7's Phantasms as Starbase 84
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where the Enterprise-D would receive its problematic new warp core. All of these reuses of the footage shot for 11001001
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with tweaks dependent on the planet and location. The latter two appearances of the space-dot type base did not include any interior shots
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But its legacy doesn't just stop in live-action Star Trek, as Lower Decks has resurrected the familiar design for Douglas Station. The initial appearances in
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The Next Generation were jarring for Enterprise-D designer Andrew Probert due to the huge shift in
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scale. The sequel series showed the vast galaxy-class vessel slipping through the doors to
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the cavernous interior. Probert had suggested that given the relative scale of the original design
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the Enterprise-D should dock at the edge of the mushroom head rather than enter the structure
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This wasn't used with the large starship navigating inside, even though Probert indicated it could have attached via a dorsal transfer umbilicals incorporated into the original Galaxy-class design
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Number 1. Substantial Spatial Superstructure Starbase 1 made its first appearance in Star Trek III The Search for Spock
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It served as the new base, replacing the orbital dry dock that had been seen in both previous films
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At a size of 3 miles in diameter, Space Dock could house a variety of starships up to and including the Excelsior class, as well as the odd concept model docked just in the corner to fill a space
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It would be the first in a line of stations designed to dwarf the hero ships of the franchise and was imagined by Future Generations director David Carson and Nilo Rodas Jomero
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The concept from Carson was to make the station look massive rather than the Enterprise look small
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and his way to achieve this, according to the Eagle Moss Starship's collection, was to include interior windows
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He was inspired by watching planes arrive at Los Angeles Airport. This helped to replace the original plan to dock the Enterprise externally
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That three-mile diameter also, when it first appeared, made this the largest space-bound Starfleet structure to have graced the screen
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Adding to that scale, the original model was filled with neon tubes
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and then had its external plating layer etched with hundreds of holes
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to give the impression of tiny windows across its surface. This in turn meant that Space Dock had to be cooled with compressed air
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while being filmed to keep the heat down. Though in terms of size it has since been surpassed by stations
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such as Starbase 74 and Yorktown from Star Trek Beyond, space talk 1 remains one of the earliest most striking examples of starfleet design evidenced
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by its enduring use that's everything for our list today folks thank you so much and thank you
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very much clive burrell who wrote the article that this is based on you can check that out over
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on whatculture.com i have been sean and you have been wonderful please make sure that you are
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subscribed to the channel it makes a massive difference when you do please follow us on the
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various socials we are at trek culture or at trek culture yt i am at sean ferrick on those socials
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as well thank you so much the wonderful pedro who edited this video you know you are wonderful
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everyone until i see you again make sure that you live long and prosper look after yourselves be
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kind to yourselves be kind to others put some love out into the world because i think we need it right
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now to our friends in congo sudan and palestine stay strong we love you and we are only hoping for
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all of the violence to end. Thank you so much everyone. You are wonderful
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